I have no inside information, but just from perusing the interweb when the question came to mind tells me there may never be an R2 of SBS 2008.
Why do I think this?
- Microsoft has in recent times begun shipping new products more quickly – a la Vista & Windows 7; Server 2008/2008 R2.
- Server 2008 R2 has been out quite a while already. The least they could have done was provide R2 as a license for the member server (I’ve already got 3 installs working this way with separate licensing). Seems pretty silly that a new purchase of SBS Premium doesn’t get you R2 licensing (making SA kind of a must have, even though we’re left guessing).
- Exchange 2010 is out now. Why would they pass up the opportunity to release a NEW SBS product vs. R2 with only a new Server code base.
- Office 2010 is imminent.
- Eric Ligman makes a passing reference to EBS 2010 in THIS POST about the demise of EBS, insinuating EBS 2010 was the NEXT version of that product, which is/was part of the same family as SBS.
So I’m predicting a Fall release of SBS 2010. Which will be cool.
Come on Microsoft – make an announcement. I promise it won’t stop me from selling SBS 2008 (assuming it’s an ‘in-place’ upgrade 
)
.png)
Hi David,
In the past SBS was linked to a 60 release target from the server OS and mid-product releases like SBS 2003 R2 were a part of that target. There are many new inovations going on at Microsoft and it is clear the teams is putting its energy into exciting new releases. As for names and dates… your guesss could be as accurate as mine.
Keep anticipating!
Jeff Loucks
There is some info out there on SBS 2008 R2 – http://www.sbsfaq.com/?p=1940
But in short, there will be a next version of SBS, as well as some additional SMB server product with links to the cloud.